The Spilled Milk of Dreams
by The Juliana Down
Summary: A year after Denny's death, Jane comes back to Castle Rock and meets up with some of her old memories (or are they nightmares?) --Please expect a lot of Ace Merril and *his* gang-- REVIEWS greatly accepted!
1. My Treat

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters from the movie Stand By Me. They belong to the copyright holders (Stephen King and Castle Rock entertainment I think). Jane isn't even mine as it is! Please enjoy and feedback is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Jane looked around slowly. It had taken her only five short hours to get to Castle Rock, but she felt as if she had traveled to a different planet. She sighed, ran a shaky hand through her hair and grasped the car's door handle. Jane drew in a shivering breath, and a single hurt sob escaped her before she could clap a hand brutally over her own mouth. Her eyes shut tightly for a moment. 

_Janie Girl, you can do this now. You've gotten this far. Now let's try opening the Plymouth's door, stepping out into the warm summer air and taking a look around. Whatta ya say? Wanna take that chance? _The inner voice whispered to her, mocking her. Jane shook her head fiercely from side to side and looked around. A mother and child walked by. Janie watched them, her eyes welling up with tears. Her eyes were not sharp now; they were hazy with memory, soft as the eyes of a woman only become when she is remembering the only time in her life that she can say she was truly happy. 

~~_Denny glides to Jane by the sidelines after the season opener, a large smile on his face. She opens her arms to him and he embraces her, the smell of his sweat mixing in with his cologne._

"Baby, did you see that?! I was on fire tonight!" he says, his voice rising. Jane smiles and kisses his cheek. Denny laughs a bit and then takes her face in his hands.

"Wanna get married?" Jane's eyes light up slightly. She is flabbergasted.~~

And then the memory is swept away. Jane sighs once more and opens the car door. She has now taken one of the biggest steps. Her eyes scan over the town's buildings. Nothing much has changed. Everything has ceased to stop growing. But the trees seemed shorter, the buildings smaller. Maybe she had grown up after all. 

After Denny's death, she had just packed up and went to stay with her cousins in New York. A month turned into a year, and now here she was, back in the place she swore she would never come back to. Denny's death had hit her, hit her _hard. _Maybe she was running away from the spiteful past. Who wouldn't? But standing by her aunt's rusty Plymouth, those old memories started to creep back in. It was if the old Castle Rock had been on pause until today. The same people walked the streets, the same old men sat outside of the barber shop and stared at people walking past. 

To Jane, she thought that when someone dies, you bury the mattress they've slept on, you give their clothes to the salvation army, whatever, you put finish to the life any way you can so that the living can get on with theirs. But what struck her the most odd was that _nothing _ had changed since she left. And that made the town more dreamy, more surreal. Of course it was a stupid thought; how can a whole town change but it still stuck in the back of her mind. 

______________

She was three blocks away from the car, walking with no sense (clear sense) of where she was going, when she realized she had ended up in front of the small ice cream shop Denny would take her to on Friday nights. Her eyes surveyed the people walking around inside. If someone had walked past and seen her standing there, looking pensively into the store's window, they would have asked her if she was lost. 

"Jane?" a voice asked to her left. She turned toward the sound, her heart skipping a beat. It was Gordie. He stood, his hands hanging limply by his sides with Chris and Vern to his right. Both boys mouths dropped open. Gordie stared at her, pale and unmoving. 

"Hi Gordie." she replied simply, her face contemplative. They stare at each other for a moment and then Gordie's gazr is broken by Chris's oddly smooth tone of voice. 

"W-we'll catch up with you later, LaChance. Meet us at the treehouse after you--" Gordie drops his stare to the floor and nods solemnly. Chris tugged at Vern's arm and started moving. Vern cast an occasional glance backward until the two boys disappeared around the corner and out of sight. 

Jane and Gordie stood there a moment longer, both silent and then Jane sighed. She looked up, half-smiling and nodded toward the parlor.

"Hey, you want a root beer float? I could sure use one right now, you little nosebleed. My treat…" Gordie looked up, grinning sheepishly. She started walking then, a chuckle bubbling up from her throat. 


	2. Run In Wrangle

"So, your parents have just kinda given up on you, huh kiddo?" Jane asked. Gordie shrugged slightly and bent back to his sundae. She frowned slightly, her blue eyes shimmering under the dim lights. "Don't worry Gordie. I know that if Denny were still alive, it wouldn't be this way." Her voice was dismal, her face losing a bit of color. Gordie nodded and looked up to her.

"Hey Jane. C-can I ask why you came back here? I mean, there's nothing here for you anymore. I woulda thought coming back would just make you more depressed." Jane watched Gordie closely, her finely polished nails tearing off small chunks of napkin on the soft blue Formica counter. She shrugged, her chocolate brown hair falling to one shoulder. 

"I guess it's my way of letting things go. Letting my mind realize that he's not here anymore to worry about. I haven't seen my parents in a little under a year and I know that that's probably hurt them." She looked down, sighing. Gordie shifted in his seat, watching her. Finally, she looked up, her eyes filled with tears. "Look, Gordie. I gotta split, kiddo." He nodded to this and stood, pushing in his chair. Jane followed his lead and they both walked out into the summer sun. She hugged herself briefly and put a hand on Gordie's shoulder. "You take care of yourself, Little Man. Denny would have been proud." Gordie looked at the ground and pawed a pebble away with his shoe. Jane began walking down the street, stopping only to look back at Gordie once more. 

"Jane? Y-you know that Denny thought of you as his future, right? You were his happiness." he voiced and turned in the other direction. Jane shook her head slightly, a single tear running down her cheek.

____________

She got to the Plymouth's door, digging in her pale pink cigarette pants for her keys. Suddenly, a hard hand clamped down on her shoulder, spinning her around. She let out a yelp of surprise and slight pain. Ace Merril grinned down at her. Jane exhaled sharply, her eyes half-closing. 

"Well, if it isn't my little baby doll? How ya doin' Janie? See anything green?" His breath was a mixture of smoke, beer and Juicy Fruit. She recoiled from him, groaning softly. 

"Damn it, Ace Merril. You don't just sneak up on people like that." He moved her hair back from her shoulders. She pushed his hands away, her temper raising a few notches. 

"Aren't you going to greet me with a welcome home kiss? I've been waiting for you to show your pretty little face back here again. Let's take a little ride, shall we?" Jane looked around her. The entire group of Cobras stood around her in a loose semi circle. On her far left, Eyeball Chambers leaned against the Plymouth's trunk. She turned her attention back to Ace and pushed him away roughly.

"Go to hell Ace. I'm not going anywhere with you and your skuzzy little friends. So, get bend and get the hell out of my way. You're breathing on me. " Ace's face was suddenly divided with lines. 

"No chick's gonna talk to me that way. Not even you. You were so stuck up in high school, I bet Dennis couldn't even get down your skirt." Jane turned on him, a dull fury rising in her. She swept her soft palm up and slapped Ace hard, making her palm sting. The Cobras hissed and catcalled as she did so. Ace closed his eyes, speaking softly, as if to a small child. 

"If it weren't for all these people around, I would pop you so hard right now. But right now I'm gonna let that go. We'll catch up with you a little bit down the road, Janie girl. Don't you worry." Jane rolled her eyes, her body propped up roughly against the Plymouth.

"Yeah, I bet. So now why don't you make like a tree and leave?" Ace laughed, turning toward his car. He motioned for the Cobras to follow, and reluctantly, they did. Jane sighed with relief, a line of sweat beginning to form on her forehead. She opened the car's door and jumped in, gunning the engine. 


End file.
